Tunisia elects new parliament speaker from Islamist party

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — The longtime leader of Tunisia’s Islamist party Ennahdha has been elected speaker of the North African country’s new parliament.

Rachid Ghannouchi was elected Wednesday with 123 votes of a possible 217 in the divided house.

Ennahdha won last month’s election. But with only 52 seats, the party failed to win the 109 required for a majority. It has so far failed to forge a coalition with other parties and the country continues to have a caretaker government under Prime Minister Youssef Chahed.

Getting Ghannouchi to the powerful position within parliament was a key goal for Ennahdha.

Kais Saied was elected president last month after former President Beji Caid Essebsi died in office in July. Saied is a retired law professor with no party affiliations.

Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.